Factors Affecting Consumer Adoption of Smartphone Applications for Mental Health and Wellness: A Structural Modelling Approach

Abstract

Smartphone applications for health and wellness have substantially changed the health behaviour of users due to their unique features like accessibility, flexibility, and persuasiveness. Using mobile applications (apps) to foster mental health and wellness has attracted the interest of researchers in recent years as there is a growing focus on mind-body wellness and people have started realising the importance of preventive behaviours and lifestyle changes. While previous research has primarily focused on fitness and physical activity apps, less attention has been paid to apps for subjective well-being. The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors responsible for the adoption of smartphone apps for wellness in India. A quantitative research approach was used and data were collected from 267 respondents. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was applied in the study and the results confirmed that perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, satisfaction, attitude and habit explained a significant amount of variance in adoption behaviour.